It is the high and low season of politics. Candidates are saying ugly things about each other to get your attention. Every candidate but one. State Treasurer Denise Nappier, a Democrat, has gone missing.

Nappier, a four-term incumbent who oversees nearly $30 billion in state employee pension funds, has been ducking public appearances for months. On Tuesday morning, Nappier backed out of a candidate forum at the Hartford Public Library at which she would have made her only appearance of the campaign with Republican rival Timothy Herbst, the first selectman of Trumbull.

Early in the campaign, Herbst called on Nappier to join him in five joint appearances around the state. Nappier agreed only to Tuesday evening's event in Hartford, her hometown. She first claimed "personal reasons" for skedaddling from her commitment. A campaign spokesperson later said Nappier's elderly mother was ailing.

As often happens with Nappier, there's never a simple answer. NBC Connecticut's George Colli, who covered the event, reported that a Nappier relative was in attendance and knew nothing of a family crisis. When police stopped Nappier three years ago late one night in the parking lot of a Hartford apartment building, a controversy ensued when the state vehicle she was driving turned out not to be properly registered. Recriminations ensued and Nappier walked several miles from Barbour Street to her home in the West End of the city.

A police officer claimed Nappier used nasty language and accused the officer of harassing her because she is black. All charges were dropped and the state car registration was sorted out. It was an unusual situation for any adult, let alone a four-term state treasurer. Wouldn't you call a friend rather than walk home in the middle of the night?

Nappier has been hiding from the press for months, refusing to respond to phone and email messages. This is unusual for an experienced elected official, especially one seeking re-election.

Nappier in hiding is also strange given her appearance last month before The Courant's editorial board. It's available online (courant.com/nappierinterview). Nappier complains often during the meeting that the press has not covered her office, which she deems one of the most important in government. Something is wrong.

By refusing to debate Herbst in even one forum, Nappier has disqualified herself from holding an office that oversees and invests $29 billion in public funds. Retired state employees and those who aspire to collect a pension ought to be alarmed. There's no good reason for Nappier's refusal to face her opponent and the public in a traditional setting of an exchange of views.

Nappier and her handlers, blind partisans, have placed a bet. They think less damage will be done by the public wondering what's the matter with her than risking lethal confirmation of her odd behavior in a public setting. That's a cynicism turned rancid at the public's expense.

Herbst provides a steady alternative to the erratic, rambling Nappier. He's serving his third term as Trumbull's first selectman and has been successful enough to garner around 70 percent of the vote last year in that Democratic town. Nappier's decision to hide gives Republicans a rare opportunity to win a statewide office in the Northeast section of the nation.

Both Nappier and Herbst qualified for taxpayer financing of their campaigns, so they will have the same amount to spend. The field, however, may not be even. State Democrats are making a late bid to use money Malloy raised in large contributions from state contractors and others for a party fund intended to support federal candidates.

This gambit to skirt the law and pervert years of their righteous rhetoric about campaign finance reform could tip the balance in this year's close statewide contests. The $50,000 that the head of state contractor Northeast Utilities Thomas May raised by writing in an email to subordinates that the money was needed to re-elect Malloy, who has been very good to NU, would come in handy.

That fund has raised $3.8 million — shaking down state contractors has been a Malloy specialty in the Rowland mode — and Democrats want to use a chunk of it to cement Connecticut into place as a one-party state. If even Nappier wins, you'll know they've succeeded.